Adventure in the burgeoning world of Adrago

A missing beauty causes trouble in two towns

While Nora and Ameth are headed toward Drie when they come upon a mysterious stranger. After a bit of confusion all three are locked up in the town jail. Ameth and Nora quickly find that this small town jail was poorly constructed and manage to escape the holding cells. Escaping the town didn’t prove quite as easy. Alerted guards are about to overcome the duo when one of the town walls is blown open by men trying to free the mysterious stranger. Ameth and Nora join forces with the guards to stop this attack and in doing so gain the Mayor’s favor. They agree to try and rescue the mayor’s wife Amaza Ellington from the neighboring town of Devonshire.

When they get to the town they try to get information indirectly about the situation with little results. They decide to confront Duke Edward Ellington about the situation next. The duke is not a happy fellow so the two decide to sneak into the estate at nightfall.

While looking for Amaza Ellington they stumble upon Llocsird and Aletha Wholestory who had also been captured by the Duke in hopes of using their magical abilities for some evil purpose. Ameth made short work of their chains and now the four decided to join forces. Avoiding guards as best they could they eventually came upon a tower which they hoped contained the trapped Amaza Ellington After sneaking up the side of the tower Llocsird decided to hang back in case any guards found them while the rest of the group finished the trek up the rest of the tower. Soon a guard who was making his rounds found the rope the adventures had used to sneak into the tower. Llocsird tried to convince the guard of his master’s evil ways but had no luck and was forced to subdue the man and hide the unconscious body. Meanwhile Nora, Aletha Wholestory, and Ameth reach the top of the tower and find Amaza Ellington being held by two goblin warlocks who are performing some evil ritual. The group makes short work of the two fiends and begin to plan their escape. Llocsird and Aletha Wholestory decide that now that Amaza Ellington is rescued they need to worry about their own freedom and part ways with the group.

With their departure the three take two horses from the Duke’s stable and ride to freedom. They return to Drie and are informed of Ellington’s plan to work with the local goblin tribe to control the surrounding area. The duke had promised the goblins the magic blood of his sister in return for their submission. The mayor asked Ameth & Nora for help stopping any future plots from the Duke or the goblin tribe but the two adventures decided Drie had provided enough adventure for now and headed South.

first encounter of new friends and a new foe

After retrieving his locket Ameth decides to pop back into the Golden Brush for a quick nip. Soon after arriving Ameth four drunk dwarves start trouble with a fifth dwarf. The drunk dwarves seem to have mistaken the other dwarf for a friend of theirs but are obviously getting on his nerves. They continue to get more boisterous and knock over the soup of a nearby halfling. Only when the mistaken dwarf’s ale is messed with does he react, digging his axe deep into the others chest. A scuffle takes place and with the halfling and Ameths help it is quickly resolved. While the dwarf introduces himself as Malkatraz and the halfling as Liniff they are approached by another halfling who has a proposition for the rowdy group. His partner has gone missing while in search of a powerful weapon but he is too afraid to search for answers himself. Ameth & Liniff seem excited by the prospect while Malkatraz begrudgingly seems interested.

Ameth & Liniff take the lead in into Quill Woods searching for the missing halfling and weapon while Malkatraz keeps his distance. After an encounter with a large slime Malkatraz attempts to assert leadership of this expedition resulting in the first of many fights between Ameth and himself. Eventually the trio find a dead halfling they assume to be the missing partner. Liniff finds a map on the body and they continue to investigate until they find a hidden entrance. Malkatraz once again hangs back while the other two delve into the dungeon. After sneaking around for quite some time Malkatraz decides to see what’s taking Ameth and Liniff so long. Because of an argument between the group over what to do with a mysterious hatch the inhabitants of the lair soon realize they have guests resulting in a messy but quick battle.Malkatraz and Liniff go deeper into the dungeon as Ameth continues to investigate the copper hatch. After some quick work with the hatch the door begins to swing open and they all immediately realize Ameth’s mistake, a dark purple mass of bone and limbs begins to rise out of the hatch while the three adventurers run deeper into the lair.

They find themselves in the Goblin Warlords room toward the back of the dungeon with the unholy mass slowly approaching them. The three work together to make short work of the goblin and his hound. Before the goblin was finished of he revealed they had released an ancient evil called a Polnorphus that is now in search of a host to confine it’s body to so that it can then spread to others again and again. The group decides to toss the goblin’s dog at the purple mass which quickly seems to devour what was left of the dog only to reconstitute itself into a purple demon dog. Now that it has a body the demon quickly tries to flee while the group fight among themselves. After Ameth almost looses his arm to Malkatraz the group splits up. Malkatraz tries to escape the dungeon from the goblin warlord’s escape route whlie Ameth and Liniff try to chase down the evil they have released. Unfortunately the evil Polnorphus escapes into the wild and Liniff looses her spear in the process.

An adventure or trap?

Ameth, Liniff, and Malkatraz meet back up at the Golden Brush tavern after their encounter with the Polnorphus during New Friends, New Trouble. The halfling that hired the group to help find his partner and great weapon locates the group in the bar and asks about their results. They tell him the grim news of his dead partner but keep the details of the weapon/ Polnorphus vague. The halfling storms out just as a Red Knight of Kurn makes his entrance in the tavern.
The bar goes silent as Knight of Kurn makes his way toward the trio. He begins asking them probing questions but is met with hesitation. Malkatraz attempts to treat the Red Knight the same way he handled the halfling with little success. The Knight splits their table in half with great ease which cause the group to spill the beans on the location of the Polnorphus release. Learning what he wanted, the Knight turns and quickly heads toward his destination into the Quill Woods.Ameth and Liniff decide to try and follow the Red Knight while Malkatraz finishes up at the bar. The Red Knight quickly locates the dungeon and enters and the two both decide to follow the into the goblin lair only to find the entire place begin to collapse around them. Ameth quickly escapes unscathed but Liniff isn’t so lucky. She finds herself pinned underneath fallen rocks, if not for Ameth’s quick work she surely would have perished.
Soon Malkatraz rejoins the others and mentions a nearby adventure he’s heard of. The other two ask for details but soon find themselves following Malkatraz to a structure carved into the side of cliff. Malkatraz wants the group to head directly into the main door but the others decide to find a less obvious entrance. Ameth and Liniff find an area of the cliff where water appears to be pouring out and decide to test their luck and squeeze through. Eventually they find themselves inside the building and begin to explore. Malkatraz manages to open the large door and finds himself in a huge hall with large stone pillars and archways. As he wanders the great hall he sees a goblin archer about to shoot from a balcony. Just before the arrow is let loose Ameth fires off his own arrow and saves his fellow adventurer. Across the hall in another balcony a second goblin readies his bow as an orc begins to notice Malkatraz. Both are soon dead due to arrow and axe. The group continues to explore until the come upon a holding cell area. Another fight with an orc begins with the heroes once again scraping by. Ameth slowly opens each cell door finding empty cells and monsters, eventually he finds a trapped woman who asks for help. Not wanting to leave the mysterious building yet they point the girl to the exit only to have Malkatraz kill her before she leaves.
After making their way through other fights and traps the three find themselves in a large library where a mysterious figure greets them. He has a large cloak and his arm is covered in smoldering rock. It appears that the man is being controlled by some outside force as he is moving oddly and talking in a distant manner. After a brief conversation it seems that he knows both Malkatraz and Ameth A fight takes place in the hopes of forcing the stranger to reveal more information. Eventually the stranger is knocked out of a large window and manages to escape.

A beginning of two separate adventures

Ameth is running through Tamuril Forest trying to track down the Polnorphus he helped accidentally release. Just as he realizes he has lost the trail he runs into Nora and Llocsird who have been looking for him. After explaining the situation the group decide to focus on finding the Great Turtle instead.

After searching through the forest for several hours with no luck they eventually stumble upon and goblin platoon. After killing the majority of the goblins they ask the paralyzed leader some questions. He reveals that they too were hunting the giant creature. He is then left to die alone in the woods as the three resume their search.

Later into the night they manage to find what appears to be the Great Turtle and decide to investigate. Eventually the creature gets startled and begins to lumber away. They three climb vines hanging from the side of the shell and ride the turtle some distance, distancing themselves from another goblin platoon. After running for some distance the Great Turtle leaps off a large cliff and crashes into another part of the forest causing the heroes to almost fall off in the process.

Aletha Wholestory then joins the scene and uses her ability to communicate with animals. She finds out the turtle is named Shelly and she has lost her egg. Shelly promises to reward them with the egg once the child hatches. The four take some glowing moss to help find the egg.

While moving through the rainy forest the group spots a glowing light up ahead. They manage to see a group of three figures head into a secret mountain passage and decide to follow. Aletha Wholestory is able to magically open the hidden passage and the group heads into the dark dungeon. After a little exploring they find a room that they believe contain the original three figures that entered the dungeon. Nora attempts to knock at their door and reason with the group. When the door is opened they see there are three drunk Salamen who mistake Nora’s glowing lantern for their friend Pistil. She plays along at first and finds out the group is guarding the dungeons entrance (poorly) and answer to a figure they refer to as “Big Red” Nora excuses herself and the rest of the group continue to explore the dungeon sneaking past another dimwitted orange Salaman only to be spotted by an active guard. Nora manages to convince the guard they are not enemies and buys the group more time.

Ultimately they decide to leave the dungeon and rest up. Someday they plan to return and investigate this group.

Looking for healing springs

After several adventures the Ameth and Nora realize they are running low on health potions. While looking through their fairly light coin purses in the town square of Arantile a familiar figure approaches. A gnome druid named Bean greets Nora, the two have met on previous adventures several years ago. Upon hearing of their need of health potions Bean happily mentions that she’s taken on a job for a local merchant to go search for materials for potions and could probably put in a good word for the fellow adventurers to tag along. The two quickly agree and head toward the merchants shop where they meet Iverson.

The four head off into Quill Woods toward the cavern that holds the ingredients Iverson seeks. The group reaches a large hole in the ground surrounded by flat carved rocks. While investigating the area Ameth notices movement in the bushes and soon discovers an orc. Luckily before any damage is done Iverson steps in and introduces Ifan, the orc ranger. The party seems wary of working with an orc but the merchant swears by his hard work. With a new member to the party a rope is tied at the entrance and everyone lowers into the pit.

The adventurers find themselves in a shallow pool and immediately begin to search for where to go next. Iverson attempts to toss Bean up to a small ledge while Ameth and Nora investigate a large rock in the water. Soon a large eel is stirred from its resting spot under the rock. Iverson rushes to dry land with the rest make quick work of the creature. Bean manages to make it up the ledge only to find several slimes waiting for her. Realizing the ledge full of slimes probably isn’t the best place to start to find the health springs Bean gives her pet fox the scent of health potions and it begins to lead the way. The group encounters a few cave fangs but shortly find the natural health spring located at the center of an underground pool. Bean swims to the small outcropping where the red liquid is pouring out and retrieves a sample for Iverson. It appears to be a pure source that he will be able to harvest for health potions for some time. He thanks the heroes but asks for their continued help of clearing out the caves so harvesting the health potion ingredients will be easier in the future. The group agrees and begins to continue exploring the cavern.

Soon the group comes across a crevasse above a small waterway. They manage to cross over after a few hiccups and find a door with goblin markings on it. After sneaking in the 4 heroes soon find themselves face to face with a goblin encampment. Ifan takes out the lions share of the horde while the others take down the leader of the group. After the last of the monsters have been slayed Iverson thanks the group and apologizes, he had no idea goblins had taken up residence in the caves. They all agree that enough had been done that day and head back to Iverson’s store where he welcomes them to spend the night and rest.

Returning to the Healing Springs

After a nights rest Ameth & Nora decide to head back to the cavern that contains the healing springs to continue cleaning it out of dangers so that Iverson can harvest the ingredients from the health spring. Iverson accompanies the two to the entrance where he stays behind to create a doorway to the cave to prevent future creatures from taking up residence in the caves.

The two heroes make their way down into the cavern where Ameth notices a glow from deep in the pool that the group didn’t notice on their first trip to the cave. Both adventurers swim through an underground waterway which takes them to a small hole containing three large green crystals. Both try to remove the crystals in the hopes of gaining some gold out of their effort. Ameth manages to tear up one of the smaller crystals but finds it still attached to the ground by crystalline roots. He tries to cut the crystal free of the roots but instead of cutting the roots simply shatter into a fine mist. Ameth quickly covers his face with his cloak but Nora was unprepared for the event and inhales a lungful of the crystal mist. She seems ok so the two head back through the small waterway and continue to explore the cave.

They begin to head off into a part of the caves that they had yet to explore but soon find themselves back at the crevice they encountered during For your health. They decide to more thoroughly investigate the goblin camp they went through but soon find several large slimes have taken up residence in the encampment, feeding on the remains of the dead goblins.

The two try to rush past the slimes only to find themselves surrounded by the encroaching blobs. Two slimes are quickly killed but one slime seems to just be getting larger and larger. The two are almost enveloped in a wall of slime when Ameth lights one of his arrows on fire and catches the remnants of a goblin tent on fire. The resulting blaze momentarily causes the giant slime to retreat and the two jump past the creature and the flames to safety. They gain some distance from the monster and continue to pepper it with arrows until it dies and begins to dissipate.

Despite being worn from the battle the two continue to explore the cavern only to find another entrance to the caves. It appears to be the way that the goblins were entering and exiting the cave. They seal it shut and head back to Iverson with the news and happily take him up on his offer of spending another night at his shop.

Mysterious maps lead to trouble

Nora wakes up early at Iverson’s shop and heads down for some breakfast at the storefront. Despite the early hour the shop already has a few customers, two of which appear to be Malkatraz & Liniff. Everything seems to be going smoothly until another customer bursts in and head to the front of the line. The fidgety man tries to sell Iverson some maps with little luck. Even though the shop keeper isn’t interested the things the strangers are saying piques the interest of the 3 heroes who soon approach the man.

Although Malkatraz seems wary of the odd fellow the other two decide to purchase a map from him. They quickly find up that the man was selling only fragments of torn maps and demand a refund or the rest of the map. Before things escalate too much Iverson intervenes and tells them to take it outside. The fidgety fellow quickly runs off only to be stopped by a large man with a sword. The three adventurers here the knight yelling at the map seller about missing friends and begin to approach the scuffle. They soon learn that the knight’s friends were also tricked into by map fragments but now have gone missing. After some rough encouragement the shifty fellow tells them the location where the maps point to. The knight runs off while the three others follow and soon come upon a mysterious stone door.

Liniff makes her way inside only to find the floor continues to shift with each step she makes. Eventually the floor tilts down one direction far enough to find another door which they decide to enter. The group attempts to make sense of their map fragments with little success only coming across monsters and other traps. Soon though the group comes across a mysterious red door with a living door knocker. They attempt to bypass the lock on the door but soon realize that they will need a special key. While looking for a key they come across a large room that has suffered a cave in.

They hear noises coming from the pile off rock and begin to try and find the source of the muffled commotion. After a few boulders are moved they see a armored hand and then a few stones later, a crushed body. They still hear noise though and soon find a cleric trapped under the rocks but protecting himself with an energy barrier. The three make short work of the remaining debris and as a thanks the Cleric proceeds to heal the group of their current wounds. He tells that he indeed was part of the other adventurers and offers up other map fragments. He asks to travel with the group until they leave the dungeon and despite Malkatraz’s objections Nora welcomes the cleric along.

The now larger group continues to explore and things seem to be going as expected until Liniff discovers a large metal grate and begins prying at the hinges and tossing meat down into the hole. Soon the cleric’s eyes seem to glaze over and he violently tries to stop Liniff from opening the grate. Malkatraz defends his fellow traveler and attempts to kill the cleric for his attack. Nora steps in to stop the violence but is met with Malkatraz’s wrath. Liniff manages to get the large grate open and begins to send a rope down into the darkness. The cleric throws up the same shield he used to protect himself from the cave in and begins to chant “protect…destroy…protect…destroy” Liniff heads down into the hole while Malkatraz slams his axe against the cleric’s barrier. The shield slowly becomes more and more opaque until it seems to be a solid impregnable mass. Nora & Malkatraz realize their traveling partner has vanished into the hole and decide to follow.

Soon the three find themselves in in a large half sunken chamber. Just as they begin to get their bearings a large humanoid serpent creature attacks the group. Almost on instinct Liniff scrambles to find safety while Nora & Malkatraz attempt to put the previous argument behind them to tackle the threat before them. After several close calls the creature is killed and the heroes find three golden eggs and make their escape to the surface.

Protecting the goods from baddies

Ameth, Malkatraz, and Liniff run into each other at the Gilded Brush tavern and all agree that the city of Arantile has lost some of it’s luster. They decided to head West toward the city of Seregon. On their way out of town they see a large land barge loading up. The head of the ship, Sham, sees the adventurers and offers them passage and 500 gold each if they can also act as escorts against any trouble the caravan may encounter on the 2 day trip. Seeing as it will knock more than a day off of travel and will add some weight to their purses the three agree.

The trip begins as you would expect it. The three do some light exploring of the barge, meet two other mercenaries (a barbarian and a ranger) hired to guard the ship, Rock the son of Iverson, and also a White Knight of Kurn. Despite Sham’s wishes the group attempt to chat with the Knight. He seems to have little patience for the group but does mention he is headed toward Bagrin to hopefully stop the spread of an unknown epidemic.

As night falls on the barge the first sign of trouble appears. One of the mercenaries spots a large fallen tree blocking the road.Ameth, Malkatraz, and Liniff head toward the roadblock to investigate and find a man laying in the road. As Ameth checks to see if the man is wounded and knife is shoved deep into his leg. The group is startled but pins the man down and ask what’s going on. Their only answer is a slight laugh as arrows now rain down from the barge. Realizing they have let the barge become overcome with bandits the three attempt to get back on the ship. They see the White Knight of Kurn toss several bandits from the barge before he himself jumps from the ship and heads toward the downed tree.

The three join the other two mercenaries and slowly kill off the bandits while the White Knight pushes away the tree. The group manages to overcome the bandits on the deck of the ship but soon find that despite their best efforts Sham has been killed and all the cargo has been stolen. The White Knight returns to the barge covered in blood from his own battle with the bandits saying the road block has been removed. As soon as he realizes the captain of the barge is dead and order has fallen away he takes one of the four Ofsken that were pulling the ship and heads off to complete his mission in Bagrin.

The elf, dwarf, and halfling decide to chase down Sham’s killers and hopefully regain the cargo. The manage to find wagon tracks leading into the forest but soon see the paths split into two sets of tracks. Ameth and Liniff head one way while Malkatraz follows the other. As the night goes on the two groups continue to follow their tracks with little results. Eventually Ameth gets restless and decides to head back to try and see if Malkatraz is getting better results while Liniffcontinues to follow these tracks. Soon she find that the tracks lead to a bandit camp and continues to press forward. Liniff manages to work her way into the camp while pretending to be a simple traveler, where she finds an empty spot and curls up for the night.

Meanwhile instead of a bandit camp Malkatraz finds himself face to face with a large Tigerbear. The dwarf tries to calm the great beast but soon finds that the Tigerbear has two cubs with her. Desperate to protect her children the Tigerbear continues to attack Malkatraz. He tries everything he can think of but soon realizes that the only thing to save his hide is to take its. Ameth appears on the scene just as an ax goes into the side of the head of the tigerbear. The two try to calm the remaining cubs with Malkatraz’s lute and some rat meat. Unfortunately the Ameth’s rat meat was several days old and ended up poisoning one of the cubs while Malkatraz awkward plucking scared off the other cub. Ameth gave chase into the dark woods hoping to capture the bear while Malkatraz heads back toward the road.

Soon he encounters one of the other mercenaries that were hired to guard the barge. The barbarian asks what’s happening in the forest and insists they head back to the barge. With adrenaline still flowing from his encounter with the Tigerbear he attacks his fellow mercenary and quickly lops his head off. As Malkatraz feasts on the heart of the dead barbarian he notices the 2nd mercenary and lets loose with a mad cackle. The ranger runs off terrified back to the barge. After disposing of the body Malkatraz finds Ameth again and finds his companion had managed to track down the cub.

Together the two head back into the woods in search of the bandits and presumably their traveling companion Liniff. The two soon find an encampment filled with sleeping bandits and wagons filled with goods. The rouge and the fighter work their way through the majority of the bandits until one of the stronger bandits manages to inflict a fatal blow upon Malkatraz who was still weak from his encounter with the wild beast. Ameth deftly avoids the final bandit’s attacks and tosses his friend his last health potion. Revitalized the two make short work of the last thief. They find Liniff sleeping in one of the now empty bandit tents and decide they need rest as well after several long hours of fighting and exploring the woods.